CN115698456B

CN115698456B - Automobile lift-off hinge with integrated door limiting part

Info

Publication number: CN115698456B
Application number: CN202180043157.0A
Authority: CN
Inventors: C·R·科瓦赫
Original assignee: MULTIMATIC PATENTCO LLC
Current assignee: MULTIMATIC PATENTCO LLC
Priority date: 2020-06-17
Filing date: 2021-06-17
Publication date: 2023-05-09
Anticipated expiration: 2041-06-17
Also published as: EP4153833B1; CA3182853A1; MX2022015520A; KR20230024271A; BR112022025764A2; CN115698456A; KR102564208B1; EP4153833A1; US20220243511A1; WO2021257821A1; US11624224B2; BR112022025764B1; CA3182853C; JP7339455B2; ES2960049T3; JP2023528534A

Abstract

An automotive lift-off hinge joint for rotatably connecting an automotive door and an automotive body includes first and second door side hinge brackets and an automotive body side hinge bracket. The locking shaft is provided with an internally threaded intermediate portion adapted to receive a removable threaded fastener and with a shaped locking shaft feature adapted to engage a similarly shaped pyramid-shaped portion of a guide pin secured to the bodyside hinge bracket. The locking shaft is rotatably mounted within the cylindrical spacing mechanism and fixedly coupled relative to the first door side hinge bracket and the second door side hinge bracket. A bushing in the door side hinge bracket bore allows for partial rotation of the locking shaft extending through the bore. The pyramid-shaped part is preferably square.

Description

Automobile lift-off hinge with integrated door limiting part

Cross Reference to Related Applications

The present application claims priority from U.S. provisional application No. 63/040,139, filed on 6/17/2020, and incorporated herein by reference.

Technical Field

The present invention is in the field of automotive door hinges, and in particular, lift-off hinge joints.

Background

Substantially all modern automotive factories assemble doors made of sheet metal to the vehicle body prior to final painting. These structures before final painting are called white gate and body in white, respectively. Assembly is performed using a hinge that rotatably couples the door to the vehicle body. The use of hinges at this stage facilitates the fitting of the door to the body in the correct orientation. After the door is in place, the final spray is performed.

In this regard of production, it is useful to remove the door from the body after painting. This allows for efficient further assembly of various components to the door on parallel production lines, including window panes, seals, audio speakers, door trim, and the like. Various techniques have been used to allow the door to be easily removed from the body and reassembled. For many years, lift-off hinge joints have been used advantageously for this purpose.

The lift-off hinge tends to suffer from a number of problems including holding the door sufficiently securely to properly orient the door for painting without damaging the hinge components, door, or body when removing and reinstalling the door. It is most desirable to obtain reliable and repeatable alignment of the hinge members. It is also preferred that disassembly and reassembly be allowed only in certain locations to ensure consistent reassembly of the door to the vehicle body in the proper orientation. Furthermore, it is desirable to provide a hinge joint component that is configured to allow a consumer end user to simply and conveniently disassemble and reassemble, such as for certain moving vehicles.

Virtually all vehicles require that the door be maintained in a plurality of discrete open positions for user ingress and egress, loading, etc. This is achieved by a threshold limiter. The door check may be separate from the associated hinge or integrated with the hinge. It would be advantageous to combine a reliable, easy to use lift-off hinge with a door stop.

Disclosure of Invention

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the lift-off hinge joint includes a pair of door side hinge brackets, a body side hinge bracket, a locking shaft having a profiled locking shaft feature, a guide pin, a spacing mechanism, and a lift-off fastener. The locking shaft is rotatably connected to two spaced apart door side hinge brackets using bushings.

The locking shaft is rotatably mounted within a spacing mechanism that surrounds the locking shaft. The rotatable interaction of the latch shaft with the spacing mechanism generates the necessary latch torque to spacing the door at a plurality of desired positions. The limit mechanism has spring preloaded rollers that interact with grooves on the locking shaft to create a limit force. See, for example, U.S. patent No. US6,481,056, entitled "Integrated Door Check Hinge for Automobiles," which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. The molded locking shaft features are aligned with corresponding molded portions of the guide pins.

The guide pin is fastened to the vehicle body side hinge bracket. This alignment places the door side hinge brackets and the body side hinge brackets in the correct orientation for assembly and reassembly. It has been found that a non-circular base of the guide pin, such as a square base pyramid shaped middle portion, is desirable to ensure proper orientation of the door for assembly and reassembly. Finally, a removable lift-off fastener in the form of a bolt having a threaded end is inserted through an aperture in the body side hinge bracket, through an internal bore in the guide pin, and tightened by screwing into a corresponding internally threaded internal bore of the locking shaft. Typically, washers are provided between the bolt heads and the bodyside hinge brackets so that the bolts are easy to install and remove.

In practice, the square shape of the guide pin intermediate portion and corresponding locking shaft features may be modified to have rounded corners to facilitate smooth contact of the parts and to prevent wear of the parts during assembly and disassembly. The guide pin is provided at one end with a tongue that aligns with a correspondingly shaped opening in the body side hinge bracket and may be swaged to join the two components. The guide pin and the body side hinge bracket may also be joined by riveting, welding, or the like. The corresponding openings in the tenons and the door side hinge brackets may be square to match the profile of the opposite ends of the guide pins, or may be provided with another polygonal shape, such as a triangle or hexagon, to prevent relative rotation between the tenons and the door side hinge brackets.

Similarly, the opposite end of the guide pin may be square or non-square polygonal in shape to non-rotatably fit within the inner bore of the locking shaft. Only the square base pyramid shaped portion of the guide pin engages the corresponding shaped portion of the locking shaft feature. This creates a form fit. On the other hand, the opposite ends of the guide pin serve as guide elements for temporarily holding the locking shaft on the guide pin during assembly of the hinge without actual engagement. Preferably, the gap between the opposite ends of the guide pin and the inner bore of the locking shaft prevents the two members from interfering with each other.

It has been found that the square shape of the intermediate pyramid-shaped part of the guide pin is optimal to facilitate correct assembly and re-assembly of the door to the vehicle body. Automobile side doors typically open between 65 and 85 degrees. In practice, the door cannot be re-suspended in a closed or nearly closed position because it is too difficult for a worker or robot to maneuver the door in such close distances. Further, if an attempt is made to re-suspend the door at 120 degrees of opening, for example, the door and the sheet metal of the body may contact, resulting in damage to both. Thus, the 90 degree indexing rotation of the square base pyramid shaped pin allows the door to be re-suspended only in the correct position, thereby allowing access for workers or machinery and preventing contact between sheet metal parts and concomitant damage. Other polygonal shapes do not provide such optimal, substantially foolproof indexing of the parts. While very useful in a factory setting, the substantially foolproof indexing of the parts is particularly beneficial in the case of consumer use of these lift-off hinges to prevent damage to the moving vehicle door when repeatedly removed and replaced.

A typical vehicle door is mounted to the vehicle body by two hinge joints, an upper hinge joint and a lower hinge joint. The hinge joint with integral door check may be mounted in any position, although an upper position may be preferred. Similar guide pins may be provided on opposing, typically lower door side hinge brackets. In this way, the door can be lifted and moved away from the body side hinge bracket and reinstalled in the correct orientation without the need for the initial use of lift-off fasteners. This greatly simplifies the door assembly operation.

Finally, when the lift-off fastener is inserted and tightened, the square base pyramid shaped intermediate portion of the guide pin and the corresponding profiled portion of the locking shaft, the locking shaft features are tightly engaged to constrain all degrees of freedom of movement between the components, except for the allowable rotational movement of the locking shaft relative to the retainer mechanism and relative to the door side hinge bracket. This results in a strong structural joint.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a lift-off hinge with an integrated door check of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional elevation view of a lift-off hinge with an integrated door check member of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional elevation view of the lift-off hinge with integrated door check of the present invention taken through plane "2" in FIG. 1.

Fig. 4 is an exploded perspective view of the lift-off hinge with integrated door check of the present invention.

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of portions of the guide pin and the body side hinge bracket of the present invention prior to assembly with each other.

Fig. 6 is a perspective view of the guide pin and a portion of the body side hinge bracket of the present invention assembled with each other.

Fig. 7 is a perspective partial sectional view of a guide pin and a part of a body side hinge bracket of the present invention assembled with each other.

Fig. 8 is a perspective view of the locking shaft of the present invention.

Fig. 9 is a perspective view of the guide pin and a portion of the body side hinge bracket of the present invention assembled with each other.

Fig. 10 is a perspective view of the separate locking shaft and the assembled guide pin and body side hinge bracket prior to attaching the locking shaft to the guide pin.

Fig. 11 is a cross-sectional elevation view of the assembled guide pin and body side hinge bracket with the locking shaft mounted to the bracket but not fastened.

FIG. 12 is a cross-sectional elevation view of an assembled guide pin and body side hinge bracket with a locking shaft mounted thereto and secured with threaded fasteners.

Fig. 13 is a cross-sectional elevation view of an assembled lift-off hinge and integrated door check assembly secured to an exemplary vehicle door and a lower lift-off hinge secured to the vehicle door.

The embodiments, examples and alternatives of the preceding paragraphs, claims or the following description and drawings, including any of their various aspects or corresponding individual features, may be obtained separately or in any combination. Features described in connection with one embodiment are applicable to all embodiments unless such features are incompatible.

Detailed Description

An automobile lift-off hinge (also simply referred to as an automobile lift-off hinge) having an integrated door opening member 1 is adapted to rotatably connect a vehicle door 3 and a vehicle body (not shown). As illustrated in fig. 1, the lift-off hinge 1 includes a first door side hinge bracket 5, a second door side hinge bracket 7, and a vehicle body side hinge bracket 9. The hinge brackets are typically stamped from sheet metal, but may also be profile pieces formed using hot rolling, casting, or the like.

The lift-off hinge 1 further comprises a locking shaft 11, the locking shaft 11 having a first end 13, a second end 15 and a shaft hollow core 12, the shaft hollow core 12 being provided with a profiled locking shaft feature 17. For example, a separate locking shaft 11 is illustrated in fig. 8. In the shaft hollow core 12 adjacent the first end 13 is a first section 19 of the shaft hollow core 12. The shaft hollow core 12 of the locking shaft 11 further comprises an internally threaded intermediate portion 23.

As illustrated in fig. 4, the threaded fastener 25 is adapted to engage the internally threaded intermediate portion 23 of the locking shaft 11. The threaded fastener 25 is typically a bolt.

The lift-off hinge 1 further comprises a cylindrical stop mechanism 27, which stop mechanism 27 has an open central core 29. For example, a cylindrical stop mechanism 27 is illustrated in fig. 3. As illustrated in fig. 2 and 3, the locking shaft 11 is adapted to rotate within the open central core 29 of the cylindrical spacing mechanism 27 by means of a first end bushing 31 and a second end bushing 33.

The guide pin 35 is an integral element of the lift-off hinge 1. The guide pin 35 comprises a central portion 37, preferably having the shape of a square base pyramid, a polygonal first portion 39, preferably square in shape and which may comprise tenons, a polygonal second portion 41, also preferably square in shape, and a pin hollow core 43. For example, fig. 5 to 7 illustrate the guide pin 35.

The hinge is formed by a door side half and a body side half, which are adapted to be removably attached to each other.

Starting from the body side half, fig. 5 illustrates a polygonal first portion 39 of the guide pin 35 ready to be inserted into a correspondingly shaped opening or aperture 10 in the body side hinge bracket 9. To facilitate smooth engagement of the parts, the outer corners of the polygonal first portion 39 of the guide pin 35 and the inner corners of the aperture 10 may be rounded. When the surface of the square base pyramid-shaped central portion 37 of the guide pin 35 abuts against the facing surface of the vehicle-body-side hinge bracket 9, the guide pin 35 is inserted to its travel limit. The four corners of the square base pyramid shaped central portion 37 provide lines of contact to provide significant stability and strength on a solid base without deforming the body side hinge brackets 9. After insertion, the guide pin 35 may be attached to the body side hinge bracket 9 by swaging the protruding portion at the end or tenon of the polygonal first portion 39. The swaged portion 40 of the tongue 39 is illustrated in fig. 6 and 10. Other material upsetting methods, such as riveting, or alternative methods, such as welding, may also be employed to secure the guide pin 35 to the body side hinge bracket 9. Fig. 7 and 9 illustrate the guide pin 35 fixed to the vehicle body side door bracket 9 from a view opposite to fig. 5 and 6. The partial sectional view of fig. 7 shows the pin hollow core 43 of the guide pin 35.

Turning to the door side half, as illustrated in fig. 2, 3 and 4, the configuration of the cylindrical spacing mechanism 27 is similar to that described in US6,481,056. In the case of the invention, a cylindrical stop mechanism 27 rests on the second door-side hinge bracket 7 around the second aperture 8 in the second door-side hinge bracket 7. The first end 13 of the locking shaft 11 is inserted through the second aperture 8 and the open central core 29 of the cylindrical stop mechanism 27. The first door side hinge bracket 5 is then mounted on the first end 13 of the locking shaft 11 such that the first end 13 of the locking shaft 11 extends through the first aperture 6 in the first door side hinge bracket 5. The flange 16 at the second end 15 of the locking shaft 11 abuts the second door side hinge bracket 7 to limit further longitudinal movement of the locking shaft 11. A washer 14 is placed on the first end 13 of the locking shaft 11 and then the first end 13 is swaged onto the washer to link the first door side hinge bracket 5 to the second door side hinge bracket 7. The cylindrical stopper mechanism 27 maintains the separation between the first door side hinge bracket 5 and the second door side hinge bracket 7. The first and

second end bushings

31, 33 facilitate axial rotation of the locking shaft 11 within the first and

second apertures

6, 8 of the first and second door

side hinge brackets

5, 8, respectively.

The door side halves may be attached to the car door 3 before or after assembly of the door side halves as described above. The first door side hinge bracket 5 and the second door side hinge bracket 7 are typically bolted to the door 3 using conventional means. These

brackets

5 and 7 may also be attached to the door 3 by welding or other suitable bonding means.

Similarly, the body side half may be attached to the vehicle body of the automobile before or after assembly of the body side half as described above. The body side hinge bracket 9 is typically bolted to the body of the vehicle using conventional means. The body bracket 9 may also be attached to the body by welding or other suitable bonding means.

The door side half and the body side half are assembled and attached to the door 3 and the body, respectively, and the door side half is removably attached to the body side half. The locking shaft 11 is adapted to engage the guide pin 35. Typically, contact will occur at the central portion 37 of the guide pin 35 having a square base pyramid shape with the similarly shaped locking shaft feature 17 of the locking shaft 11 to create a form fit. Likewise, the square outer corners or edges of the central portion 37 of the guide pin 35 and the inner corners of the locking shaft feature 17 may be rounded to facilitate sliding these parts into and out of engagement. Preferably, there is play between the non-contact portion of the guide pin 35 and the shaft hollow core 12 of the locking shaft 11, thereby ensuring accurate alignment at the contact surface, without other surfaces competing or interfering with such contact. The polygonal second portion 41 of the guide pin 11 acts as a guiding feature and provides temporary retention of the first section 19 of the shaft hollow core 12 of the locking shaft 11 during hinge assembly.

As described above, the door 3 can be lifted off from the upper portion of the vehicle body. The corresponding shaping of the guide pin 35 and the locking shaft 11 where they meet ensures that the door 3 will be aligned with the vehicle body as precisely as before, no matter how many times the door 3 is removed and replaced. As described above, the right angle indexing rotation of the pyramid-shaped guide pins 35 requires that the door be re-suspended in the correct position, as rotating the door 90 degrees in either direction would unduly limit access to the hinge or risk damaging the door. While square pyramid shapes for the guide pins 35 are preferred, trilobes or hexagons are also possible.

When the door 3 is ready to be rotatably and axially secured to the body, the threaded fastener 25 typically passes through the second washer 26, through the hollow core 43 of the guide pin 35, and into the internally threaded intermediate portion 23 of the locking shaft 11. Typically, the diameter of the leading end 24 of the threaded fastener 25 is smaller than the diameter of the internally threaded intermediate portion 23 of the locking shaft 11 such that when the threaded fastener 25 is fully tightened into the internally threaded intermediate portion 23, its leading end 24 is not in contact with the locking shaft 11. Tightening the threaded fastener 25 forces the two pyramid-shaped faces 37, 17 of the guide pin 35 and the locking shaft 11, respectively, into firm engagement and constrains other degrees of freedom to create a structural joint. The fastening tabs are illustrated, for example, in fig. 2, 3 and 12.

To achieve the threshold function of the lift-off hinge, the locking shaft 11 is provided with a groove or spline 18, which groove or spline 18 engages with a spring loaded roller in the open central core 29 of the cylindrical stop mechanism 27 when the locking shaft 11 rotates in the cylindrical stop mechanism. The interaction of the spline 18 with the spring loaded rollers in the open central core 29 creates a locking torque that allows the door 3 to be restrained in a number of discrete positions as it rotates open and closed. As indicated above, this form of door stop integrated with the hinge is described in US6,481,056.

While the illustrated lift-off hinge is preferably used with a stop mechanism, it may be used without a stop mechanism to prevent rotation of the pin during fastener tightening. The polygonal shape described above facilitates this function.

As illustrated in fig. 13, the second hinge joint 45, typically the lower hinge of a pair of hinges for each door, is simpler than a typical upper lift-off hinge with integrated door check 1. The lower guide pins 47 mounted in the lower door side hinge brackets 49 may simply fit through the lower body bracket apertures 51 in the lower body side hinge brackets 53. The lower guide pin 47 in the lower hinge joint 45 also necessarily inhibits vertical movement when the threaded fastener 25 is tightened in the upper hinge 1. The lower door side hinge bracket 49 and the lower body side hinge bracket 53 are rotatable relative to each other together with the upper first door side hinge bracket 6 and the second door side hinge bracket 8 relative to the upper body side hinge bracket 1. Alternatively, the lower hinge joint 45 may be fastened using conventional means, if necessary.

While the invention has been illustrated and described in detail in the drawings and foregoing description, such illustration and description are to be considered illustrative or exemplary and not restrictive; the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments. Other variations to the disclosed embodiments can be understood and effected by those skilled in the art in practicing the claimed invention, from a study of the drawings, the disclosure, and the appended claims. In the claims, the word "comprising" does not exclude other elements or steps, and the indefinite article "a" or "an" does not exclude a plurality. A single processor or controller or other unit may fulfill the functions of several items recited in the claims. The mere fact that certain measures are recited in mutually different dependent claims does not indicate that a combination of these measures cannot be used to advantage. Any reference signs in the claims shall not be construed as limiting the scope.

It should also be understood that although a particular arrangement of components is disclosed in the illustrated embodiment, other arrangements will benefit. Although a particular sequence of steps is shown, described, and claimed, it should be understood that steps may be performed in any order, separated or combined unless otherwise indicated and will still benefit from the present invention.

Although the different examples have specific components shown in the drawings, embodiments of the invention are not limited to these specific combinations. Some components or features of one example may be used in combination with features or components of another example.

Although an example embodiment has been disclosed, a worker of ordinary skill in this art would recognize that certain modifications would come within the scope of the claims. For that reason the following claims should be studied to determine their true scope and content.

Claims

1. An automobile lift-off hinge joint for rotatably connecting an automobile door and an automobile body, comprising:

a first door side hinge bracket and a second door side hinge bracket;

a vehicle body side hinge bracket;

a locking shaft having a first end, a second end, and a shaft hollow core provided with a profiled locking shaft feature and an internally threaded intermediate portion adapted to receive a removable threaded fastener;

first and second end bushings positioned adjacent the first and second ends of the locking shaft, respectively;

a cylindrical stop mechanism having an open central core adapted to receive the first end portion and the intermediate portion of the locking shaft;

the first end bushing and the second end bushing are respectively positioned between the locking shaft and the first door side hinge bracket and between the locking shaft and the second door side hinge bracket;

the first end of the locking shaft is rotatably attached to the first door side hinge bracket and the second end of the locking shaft is rotatably attached to the second door side hinge bracket;

a guide pin having a square base pyramid shape at a central portion, a polygonal first portion, a polygonal second portion, and a pin hollow core adapted to receive the removable threaded fastener;

the polygonal first portion of the guide pin is non-rotatably attached to the body side hinge bracket;

the profiled locking shaft feature non-rotatably engaging a correspondingly profiled central portion of the guide pin;

the polygonal second portion of the guide pin is received within a correspondingly shaped first section of the shaft hollow core without contact therebetween;

such that when the removable threaded fastener is fully tightened, the door is rotatably connected to the body and when the removable threaded fastener is removed, the door is removable from the body.

2. The automotive lift-off hinge joint of claim 1, wherein the polygonal first and second portions of the guide pin are square-shaped.

3. The automotive lift-off hinge joint of claim 1, wherein the guide pin is secured to the bodyside hinge bracket by swaging, riveting, or similar material upsetting.

4. The automotive lift-off hinge joint of claim 1, wherein the guide pin is secured to the bodyside hinge bracket by welding, bonding, or similar attachment.

5. The automotive lift-off hinge joint of claim 1, wherein the locking shaft is fluted and rotatably interacts with a spring-loaded roller in the spacing mechanism to generate locking torque at a plurality of discrete locations.

6. The automotive lift-off hinge joint of claim 1, wherein the polygonal first portion of the guide pin constitutes a tenon that is inserted into a correspondingly shaped opening of the body side hinge bracket and swaged to join the guide pin to the body side hinge bracket.

7. The automotive lift-off hinge joint of claim 1, wherein corners of the polygonal first portion and corners of the polygonal second portion and square shaped central portions of the guide pins are rounded to facilitate smooth alignment with corresponding portions of the locking shaft and body side hinge brackets with which the locking shaft and body side hinge brackets mate accordingly.